Spitfire runway excursion

One of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Spitfires, Mk.IX MK356 (c/n CBAF.IX1561) experienced a runway excursion while landing at its homebase RAF Coningsby on 11 May 2022.

According to an RAF spokesman, a minor technical fault was to blame for the incident with the Second World War Spitfire. Fortunately the aircraft was brought swiftly to a halt on the grass with apparently only minor damage.

Spitfire MK356 is a Mk. LF IX that was built at Castle Bromwich, and assigned to 443 ‘Hornet’ Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, at RAF Digby in March 1944.

She then moved with 144 Wing to Holmsley, on the south coast, then to Westhampnett (Goodwood) and later to Ford in Sussex. It was used as a static exhibit in the filming of the 1968’ movie ‘The Battle of Britain’.

In 1997, MK356 was taken up in the BoBMF and returned to airworthy condition. Since then the Spitfire has had a number of different liveries: those of ‘21-V’, then ‘UF-Q’, ‘5J-K’ and finally ‘QJ-3’.

Photo by David Ilott via AirHistory.net